Graduate Awards for Excellence

Each spring, the Division of Graduate Studies honors student excellence in academic achievement, teaching, research, leadership and community service with the Graduate Awards of Excellence. Four students were awarded $1,200 for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching, Excellence by a Graduate Student Teaching Assistant, Outstanding Master’s Thesis and Outstanding Dissertation at the Research Week Student Awards Breakfast. The Graduate Council Appeals and Awards Subcommittee developed the criteria and selected the following university recipients.

Congratulations to the winners and nominees!

Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching

Winner

Ravi Todi
Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering and Computer Science

“In a brief span of about four years, Mr. Todi has developed an excellent record not only in academics and research, but also in service, leadership and teaching,” says Dr. Kalpathy Sundaram, Professor of Engineering. Founding Chair of the American Vacuum Engineering Society at UCF, Ravi Todi serves on many committees and was awarded the 2006 Order of Pegasus Award, which recognizes excellence in academics, research, leadership, campus involvement and community service.

“Probably the most important aspect of teaching is the student, his/her understanding and learning, and encouragement of such. The ability to teach someone something new is a gift that should be shared,” says Todi. Encouraged by his adviser to apply for the award, Todi was excited and happy to find out that he had won one of the highest honors that a graduate student can receive at UCF. “In my opinion, this award is extremely important because it gives every student the motivation to work hard and to achieve yet another level of excellence. The motivation to achieve this award helps to bring out the best in you,” he explains.

Nominees

Pavan Chennamaneni
Business Administration
College of Business Administration

In his third year of teaching at UCF, Pavan Chennamaneni was recently the joint winner of the College of Business Administration’s 2006-2007 CBA Ph.D. Teaching Award. “I feel as a teacher I should not only present new knowledge to students, but more importantly, encourage students to critically evaluate their past experiences in light of the new information they learn,” he explains. Students repeatedly cite Chennamaneni
for his enthusiasm, course relevance, rigor, accessibility, and commitment to their educational experiences. The Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs, Dr. Jaishankar Ganesh speaks highly of Chennamaneni, stating that he is “a conscientious and caring teacher, and his students are the beneficiaries of his skill and dedication.”

Debra Marshall
Sociology
College of Sciences

Unlike most students in the Sociology Ph.D. program, Debra Marshall was assigned to teach on her own her very first semester and is currently teaching a large class of almost 300 students. Comments from students indicate that Marshall is an energetic and engaged teacher and that the students value her courses. Dr. Joan M. Morris, Professor of Sociology, believes one of the reasons that Marshall is such an excellent instructor is the “vast experience which she draws from; the obstacles she has overcome to her work history in child services.”

Lindsey McNellis
History
College of Arts and Humanities

With admiration from her students and colleagues, Lindsey McNellis is known for her unique teaching philosophy. She explains, “By providing the students with the ability and knowledge to question history, it becomes more interesting and relevant to their lives, thus easier to learn.” Through PowerPoint presentations and question-and-answer sessions, McNellis uses different teaching methods in the classroom and promotes critical thinking and learning among her students. “Ms. McNellis is a very thoughtful and responsible instructor with a very good grasp of the teaching materials. She has matured and improved rapidly as a graduate teaching assistant,” says Dr. Consuelo Stebbins, the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the College of Arts and Humanities.

Elizabeth O’Brien
Counselor Education
College of Education

A doctoral candidate in the Counselor Education program, Elizabeth O’Brien has taught individual sessions and two 15 week-long classes during her studies at UCF. Education faculty members were so impressed with her teaching abilities, she was asked to serve as an adjunct for courses on marriage and intimacy. With high evaluations from her students, O’Brien believes that “ultimately the aim of education should not only be to help students better understand a given subject, but to also teach them to examine their thoughts and feeling about the subject and how it affects their behavior. It is then that education moves from being an extrinsic experience to an intrinsically motivated activity.”

Excellence in Graduate Teaching Assistant

Winner

Maribeth Kuenzi
Management
College of Business Administration

A fourth-year student in the Management program, Maribeth Kuenzi’s overall instructor evaluations have been far beyond the mean scores of the department and the college overall. Coming from a long line of teachers in her family, Kuenzi considers teaching to be more than just providing information to students. “We also need to help them develop as individuals as they get ready to go out into the workforce. My goal is to create a climate in my classroom to provide the best atmosphere for learning by providing a positive environment, modeling appropriate behavior, providing a safe environment, utilizing different learning styles, and showing concern and respect for students,” she says.

Nominees

Rosalie Perkins
Communication Sciences and Disorders
College of Health and Public Affairs

From the first semester that Rosalie Perkins taught the laboratory, there was a significant improvement in student evaluations, which has continued steadily since. She has personal time to offer additional review sessions for students, and this past semester the area of speech science was recognized by the college as having the greatest improvement in the undergraduate competency exam in Perkins’ field. “Her example is so exceptional, and her commitment so unwavering, that she has been succeeded in inspiring me as a professor to do a better job in the classroom,” says Dr. Jack Ryalls. An important aspect of Perkins’ teaching philosophy is the importance of promoting strong advocacy for the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Maria Rizou
Civil Engineering
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Maria has been teaching the Hydraulics lab session since 1998 and her student evaluation comments caught the eye of Dr. Avelino Gonzalez, Interim Chair and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Many students indicated she was the best teaching assistant they had ever had, which can be attributed to her ability to demand respect from her students, while being helpful and patient. “My teaching approach is based on development of a set of skills that students should possess upon graduation. I find teaching to be not only a challenging, but also a rewarding experience,” she says.

Bridget Steele
Mathematics Education
College of Education

In her first year of the Mathematics Education Ph.D. program, Bridget Steele supervised student interns and applied her own teaching experience in secondary mathematics classrooms to help new teachers become effective teachers of mathematics. “My educational philosophy is centered on my beliefs that all students are capable of learning mathematics through the right teaching. I also believe that giving students’ confidence that they can do the math is important. A student who believes that a teacher cares about his/her learning makes a tremendous difference,” she says. One of the greatest factors that Steele takes away from her teaching experience is being able to see what new teachers really need help with in the classroom. Her adviser, Dr. Janet Andreasen, comments, “She understands the importance of providing support to beginning teachers and has done an excellent job in this role.”

Tomasz Wlodarczyk
Mathematics
College of Sciences

The UCF Excel program’s goal is to increase student success in Calculus, which has proven to be a hurdle that many students never get past. Six professors in the Excel program nominated Tomasz Wlodarczyk for his accomplishments, stating “Tomasz has taken ownership of this program and we are all impressed by his technical knowledge, his never ending positive attitude, his dedication to students, his creativity in curriculum development, and his professionalism.” Tomasz tries to involve his students in his presentations by constantly asking them to tell him what the next step is in the solution, which helps the students discover ways through the problem and build their critical thinking. “I always think what great a pleasure and honor for me it is to stand in front of a class and be able to share my passion and enthusiasm for mathematics with students,” he says.

Outstanding Master’s Thesis

Winner

Beth Pettitt
Biology
College of Sciences

Brutal desert conditions. Failing equipment. A lack of supplies. Disgruntled team members. Rampant rodents. Much of Beth Pettitt’s research experience may sound more like an episode of TV’s “Survivor” than the makings of UCF’s Outstanding Master’s Thesis for 2007.

Fortunately, Pettitt’s travails in the Namib desert in southwestern Africa not only built her character, but also yielded groundbreaking insight into the reproductive profile of earth’s largest group of mammals: rodents, in particular, the Cape Ground Squirrel.

“These complications forced me to get creative, come at problems from a different angle, and try things I never thought I could,” Pettitt recalls. “While academics work, both research and teaching may oftentimes be frustrating and sometimes feel unrewarding, such work has great and sometimes hidden impacts on our society and our world.”
Indeed, Beth’s groundbreaking studies of the Cape Ground Squirrel may provide scientists with techniques to answer a wide variety of reproductive questions about this most diverse class of mammals, and ultimately, the underlying mechanisms of reproductive distribution with animal groups at large.

“Beth’s Master’s thesis was at the Ph.D. level,” describes Beth’s adviser, Dr. Jane Waterman. “Not only did the thesis contain two papers on critical problems in behavioral ecology, but she has also drafted two additional papers on the same research. Producing four papers from a Master’s study is quite amazing and attests to her focus and enthusiasm for her research.”
As she continues her studies at the University of Minnesota, in pursuit of her doctorate in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Beth appreciates the value of her thesis work at UCF. “Having my own project that depended entirely on my skills, my motivation and my creativity was an invaluable learning tool. The thesis process provided me with the experiences necessary to grow and develop as a scientist.”

Nominees

Liza Cobos
Hospitality Management
Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Practicality defines the nomination of Liza Cobos’ thesis, a study of the effectiveness of web-marketing practices of leading tourism organizations. “The thesis is creative and highly theory driven with strong orientation of practical industry application,” says nominating adviser Dr. Youcheng Wang. “This is a major improvement from previous studies, which are primarily dominated by technical and clinical thinking, at the expense of neglecting the big picture.” Cobos describes her work as an attempt to help industry managers to “understand their organization and their mission to allocate resources to the most efficient marketing efforts.”

Julie Baker
Communication Sciences and Disorders
College of Health and Public Affairs

Speech-language pathologist Julie Baker asserts her lifelong passion to help the geriatric population as a motivation for her thesis, which analyzed speech onset time as a predictor of Alzheimer’s disease. “The long-term goal of this study and additional studies to follow is to assist in the finding of a new and cost-effective way to detect Alzheimer’s disease in its earliest stage,” Baker explains. Baker’s nominating adviser, Dr. Jack Ryalls, describes her work as the most ambitious he has seen in his dozen years at UCF. Now working toward her Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina, Baker has already presented her findings at an international conference in Croatia, and her work has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics.

Lisa Leong
K-8 Mathematics and Science
College of Education

After second grade teacher Lisa Leong received the Lockheed Martin/UCF Academy of Mathematics and Science scholarship, she found herself opening to a new view of education—and herself. “Rather than blindly do what has been done in the past or even what is comfortable and safe, I have learned to embrace strategies that are based on research and also resonate with what I believe to be in the best interest of my students.” Leong’s thesis, centered on implementation of an interactive elementary classroom behavior model, sought to challenge the conventional idea of a passive student, says her nominating adviser Dr. Juli Dixon. This work “will influence the ways in which new and existing teachers establish and maintain classroom rules that promote mathematical communication.”

Peter Bacopoulos
Civil Engineering
College of Engineering and Computer Science

For Peter Bacopoulos, the vagaries of ocean tides are a constant. His thesis, now published in the prestigious journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, details the remote effects of adjacent water bodies on tidal circulation. Since publication, the scientific implications of the research have inspired more than $200,000 in additional funding and a dissertation topic for Bacopoulos: extending the research beyond estuarine and coastal systems to the continental shelf. “Peter has proven himself,” notes nominating adviser Dr. Scott Hagen, “to be an excellent student, a diligent worker, and an ambitious researcher.” Bacopoulos is continuing his Ph.D. work at UCF in the hp CHAMPS lab.

Outstanding Dissertation

Winner

Erwan Baleine
Optics
College of Optics and Photonics

Many scientific breakthroughs happen from looking at something familiar differently. In the case of Erwan Baleine, winner of UCF’s Outstanding Dissertation for 2007, this means literally.

Baleine, a graduate student in the College of Optics and Photonics and the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL), completed his dissertation work on a new type of optical detection system that can collect statistical information from a target object by manipulating the coherence properties of light.

“For a large class of objects, ranging from clouds to biological cells aggregations, statistical characterization is indeed more informative than conventional imaging,” Baleine notes. “I hope this research will motivate more interest in the field of Optical Coherence.”

The technology, for which Baleine has already applied for a patent, aims to push imaging beyond the limits of today’s microscopy and offers tremendous promise in several areas, particularly to medical researchers.
This dissertation “has resulted in innovative approaches for sensing and microscopy which are critical for many medical applications … and are also extremely relevant to other domains of radiation such as X-rays and electron beams,” says nominating adviser Dr. Aristide Dogariu.

Results from Baleine’s research have already been published in six prestigious professional journals, including Optics Letters, and presented at several major national and international scientific meetings. Additionally, the Optical Society of America’s Optics and Photonics News lauded the pioneering findings regarding the use of partially coherent fields in a feature for “Optics of 2006.” Baleine was also awarded CREOL’s Student of the Year for 2006 for his innovative research.

Since graduation, Erwan has taken a position as an Advanced Engineer for Siemens Power Generation and credits his work at UCF for a new research insight.

“What an unforgettable journey writing this dissertation was. All the hard work and countless hours spent in my research were so important. This Ph.D. has given me the skills necessary for my new job, and I can now appreciate how the experience gained during my dissertation guides my everyday decisions. It has been very satisfying and fulfilling.”

Nominees

Rebecca Fiedler
Education
College of Education

It’s only fitting that Rebecca Fiedler’s dissertation on the evolution of electronic portfolios for preservice teachers has its own electronic edge. “Deciding how to use the video and audio I had collected, while honoring the traditions of the written dissertation, was a sometimes frustrating but always fascinating challenge,” Fiedler recalls. Indeed, like the form, the substance of Fiedler’s work also forged new ground. “The findings of the study are of great importance to teacher educators,” notes co-nominating professor Dr. Donna Baumbach. “While previous studies have looked at the content, purposes and use of professional portfolios, few have examined the process or the tools, much less the interaction of the producer, the expectations, and the technology.” For her work, Fiedler has been asked to present at several conferences and serve as an evaluation team member for an Ethics Education in Science and Engineering federal grant.

Thomas Cavanaugh
Texts and Technology
College of Arts and Humanities

Excuse Thomas Cavanaugh for helping himself. His innovative dissertation on self-service, what he dubs the Kiosk Culture, is, in the words of his nominating adviser Dr. Karla Kitalong, “a mindset, a shift in cultural sensibilities.” As Cavanaugh explores a range of sources from ATMs to semiotics, “his dissertation informs both academic and industry practitioners,” says Kitalong. “By reading and reflecting on his notions of the Kiosk Culture and its accompanying spectrum of support, and by interrogating with him the metaphors of transparency and performance, we begin to understand the impact of a culture of self-service upon our teaching, research and practice.” An accomplished novelist and multimedia writer, Cavanaugh now serves as Director of Instructional Design and Development at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Wu Jing
Applied Mathematics
College of Sciences

Like his more than 20 previous research publications in professional journals, a portion of Wu Jing’s dissertation has already been published, with an additional section now under submission to the industry-leading Journal of Operator Theory. The work, which pushes development of the Hilbert C*-modular theory, in particular the essential differences between Hilbert space Riesz-bases and modular Riesz-bases, is, in the words of Jing’s nominating adviser Dr. Deguang Han, “surprising and fundamental.” Han praised Jing as an “outstanding student who is capable of attacking difficult mathematical problems, and who is also very quick at learning new ideas, and then using them for deep and broad research.” Jing is now Assistant Professor at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.

Diane Andrews
Public Affairs
College of Health and Public Affairs

A familiar problem led longtime nurse Diane Andrews to her dissertation, which analyzed the work satisfaction and retention of nurses. Her systematic study, culled from first-hand data collected from nurses in a local hospital system, took variables related to job strain and longevity through a complex structural equation modeling. “Her results are remarkable,” says nominating adviser Dr. Thomas Wan, “and offers new insight about the direction for formulating appropriate health promotion strategies to reduce job strain and improve nurse retention.” Andrews’ has since been invited to present her work at two podium presentations and accepted an appointment with the School of Nursing at UCF, where she will mentor future nurses and prepare them for productive and positive experiences in the field.

Xiaochun Cao
Computer Science
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Improving the state-of-the-art in video post-production defines Xiaochun Cao’s dissertation, which offers techniques for simultaneous recovery of camera motion and scene structure. Cao’s nominating adviser Dr. Hassan Foroosh ascribes the work’s “elegant balance between theory and the resulting practical computational tools to solve some of the most challenging problems in image understanding and computer vision.” Already the author of 27 peer-reviewed publications, Cao’s work has been accepted for publication at leading IEEE journals. Today, Cao is a research scientist at one of the leading video surveillance and security companies.