Through partnerships with state and federal programs, the UCF College of Education continues to give Florida's educators tools for effective teaching. Perhaps most exciting to Dean Sandra Robinson is a $5.1 million Florida Department of Education award to support FlaRE, or Florida's Literacy and Reading Excellence Center.

That award was the largest ever received by the college, which received $16 million in research funding in 2002, making it UCF's most funded college that year. About 240,000 students throughout Florida's 67 counties will benefit from the various programs sponsored by UCF's Academy of Teaching, Learning and Leadership.

UCF's educators also are working to improve how teachers approach math and science. In the first two years of the state's Mathematics and Science Professional Development Program, more than 4,500 Florida elementary and middle school teachers attended summer institutes to freshen their knowledge in their areas of specialty.

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When Beverly Rzigalinski talks about cellular communication, she's not talking about whether you can hear her now. The University of Central Florida researcher is talking about what's going on at the molecular level, and how to manipulate that response to provide treatment for traumatic brain injuries and debilitating diseases.

Developments in high-speed fluorescence imaging allow the molecular biologist to study microglia, cells that respond to brain injury and initiate the response to repair or destroy the damaged neuron. Scientists can now observe the response of microglia to neural damage and disease.

"We should be able to direct that response toward healing," according to Rzigalinski. With $1.4 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, Rzigalinski's team is pioneering new approaches to life-altering conditions.

With advancements in nanotechnology, Rzigalinski also comes closer to developing approaches to combatting debilitating diseases or even controlling aging.

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Talk about applied psychology: University of Central Florida researcher Eduardo Salas and his colleagues have developed principles of effective teamwork under typically difficult conditions. "Currently, I am doing research into multicultural teams during hostile operations. It's basically about fostering teamwork while interacting with teammates from various cultures during peacekeeping operations," Salas reports.

Using simulation, modeling and other methods, the psychology professor and his team at UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training have studied teamwork in such settings as military operations and commercial aviation, as well as in business, medical and emergency management agencies.

UCF's Research Council and the Office of Research named Salas the Distinguished Researcher for 2002. His research activities support two post-doctoral fellows and 15 undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, Salas also is a prolific writer - the sixth most productive industrial and organizational psychologist in the United States in the past decade.

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University of Central Florida researcher Peter Delfyett is shedding light on the telecommunications and semiconductor industries.

A partnership between UCF School of Optics/CREOL and the business community has resulted in a breakthrough in optical transmission: the world's fastest laser, breaking the one terabit per second mark.

"Many times there are various technical solutions to problems. But the one that actually gets used and makes the company the most money is not the technology that works best, but the one that works as well as the others and is 10 times cheaper," asserts Delfyett.

Industry representatives echo Delfyett's confidence that his technology will bridge the gap between the capacity to transmit and receive data. "This accomplishment is a giant leap, not only for the field of phototonics but also in how it will impact the future of computing and information systems," says Jeff Saunders, president of Schwartz Electro-Optics in Orlando.

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With U.S. forces engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq and increased storminess in the world's political climate, technology and military preparedness have taken on increased importance in our nation's defense. UCF researcher Peter Hancock is using computer simulations to model battlefield stress and develop strategies to reduce wartime casualties.

With a $5 million grant from the Department of Defense, Hancock is studying ways to understand and overcome the effects of battlefield stress on decision-making. A Provost's Distinguished Research Professor in human factors research, Hancock conducts his studies through the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Simulation and Training.

Hancock's research focuses on a Catch-22 of modern warfare: The very technology designed to equip soldiers for more effective combat can also be a source of stress. His project, Operating Performance Under Stress, is the first behavioral Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative that the U.S. Army has ever funded. Among Hancock's findings is that a soldier's spatio-temporal perception narrows under stress.

"Soldiers today are not facing traditional situations," Hancock said. "In the old days you could prepare for a basic mission. Modern soldiers are inundated with information. They operate in highly technical situations."

Soldiers today sport headsets with visors, carry miniature computers, and use global positioning systems. Hancock's team is studying how the technology can be more user-friendly and how it can aid, not detract from, the decision-making process. Identification Friend or Foe technology, for example, can recognize friendly forces and thus eliminate casualties from friendly fire. Eventually it may result in the development of weapons that will specifically target enemy forces. Hancock's team hopes to use its findings to develop visual display units to aid in training and, ultimately, a greater understanding of how technology can be used to save lives.

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Her own story is one of triumph over adversity. Dr. E. J. Brown, who was a single mother in the tenth grade, is now UCF's 2003 College of Health and Public Affairs Distinguished Research award winner. As associate professor and Chatlos Endowed Chair in Minority Health in the School of Nursing, and as president and grant writer for the Coalition for the Health and Advocacy of Rural Minorities, Inc. (CHARM), a nonprofit organization she founded, Dr. Brown is working with rural black populations in northern Florida to prevent the proliferation of HIV/AIDS and to prevent substance abuse.

By immersing herself and the researchers she trains in a culture she once called home, Dr. Brown seeks to understand drug-related consuming behavior, sexual behavior and health outcomes, and HIV risk behavior among rural minorities. Dr. Brown is currently engaged in an ethnographic study funded by an $886,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In addition to her research, Dr. Brown is also an editorial board member for the Journal of Rural Health and a grant writer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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University of Central Florida professor Dianna Stone in the College of Business Administration would like business to facilitate the inclusion of outgroup members, especially members of different cultures, racial minorities, and people with disabilities.

"I have always been interested in the inclusion of outgroup members in organizations and the fair treatment of individuals in our society," Stone says. "As a result, I have studied stigmas and unfair discrimination in organizations – especially issues of race and disabilities – throughout my career."

Her tireless efforts in fairness issues have earned Stone numerous accolades, including being named "One of the Top Ten Women in Orlando" in 2002. She also has received the coveted Lyman Porter Research Award.

The impact of Stone's research is being felt in management. "In particular, my work on the fair treatment of employees with disabilities has been used by a number of private sector organizations and human service agencies," the professor relates.

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