News & Honors
Outstanding faculty honored during annual awards celebration
The University of North Texas recently celebrated four faculty members for their dedication to excellence through research, service and education as part of the eighth annual Salute to Faculty Excellence Awards Dinner and Ceremony on Thursday, April 25 at UNT’s Apogee Stadium HUB Club.
The ceremony was supported by the UNT Foundation, which accepts, invests, and manages private gifts, endowed funds and other assets for the benefit of the university, including faculty and students.
Janice Miner Holden
Holden, professor of...
The UNT Workplace Inclusion and Sustainable Employment program (UNTWISE) housed in the Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services in the College of Health and Public Service is collaborating with the College of Engineering and the Sci-Tech Discovery Center in Frisco to offer three summer programs for students with disabilities. The 2019 Explore STEM! Summer Program, funded by the Texas Workforce Commission, will provide opportunities for students ages 14-22 to explore STEM activities and career possibilities.
A similar program last summer, led by UNT faculty Nandika D’Souza in...
The College of Engineering has received a $359,993 Research Experience for Undergraduates grant from the National Science Foundation to host camps on vehicular edge computing and security for the next three summers.
The 10-week camps will be open to 10 undergraduate students who come from populations underrepresented in the computer science industry and/or institutions without the ability to conduct research in this area.
Associate professor Song Fu and assistant professor Qing Yang are the REU directors as well as the principal investigators on the autonomous car project in UNT’s Department...
As part of an informal collaboration, the University of North Texas has completed the successful restoration, update and installation of a half- meter CDK (Corrected Dall-Kirkhand) telescope to be used for student photometric and astrometric research.
“A CDK telescope utilizes two mirrors, special lenses and a charge-coupled device (like those found in digital cameras) to produce extremely high-quality images,” says Ron Diiulio, astronomy lab director at UNT’s College of Science. “This telescope will allow us to see a multitude of cosmic wonders such as planets outside of our solar system and...
Pamela Padilla, interim associate vice president for research and innovation, was recently highlighted by the Society for Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the largest STEM diversity organization in the country.
Padilla's work as a scientist, professor of biological sciences and university leader was told as part of the SACNAS Biography Project. She is a recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award. Her research, which has been continually supported by either the NIH or NSF, focuses on how environmental and dietary stress affects living...
BY KAYLA GREEN
UNT’s College of Engineering recently received a grant from the Texas Women’s Foundation to create and expand outreach efforts aimed at increasing the number of women in computer science and engineering.
The $30,000 funding will be put towards multiple initiatives, including UNT STEM@thePark, DEE-UNTApp Camp, a train-the-trainer online program and Latina STEM teacher-led after school programs. Nandika D’Souza, associate dean for undergraduate studies, and Stephanie Ludi, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, are leading the efforts.
“There are a lot...
A UNT G. Brint Ryan College of Business student was the first woman to win IBM’s collegiate coding contest, Master the Mainframe, last year — now, she’s done it again.
The win by senior Anna McKee marks the third consecutive time a UNT student has won the competition. Anna is one of two winners and the only woman to win this year for the North American region. Her performance also resulted in McKee being ranked in the top three competitors globally — the only woman in the winning group.
“When I competed in Master the Mainframe in September 2017, I thought that the whole competition was...
Mira Patel (left) Ritik Patnaik (middle) Rishi Shridharan (right)
Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science seniors, Mira Patel, Ritik Patnaik and Rishi Shridharan were recently named three of the top 300 scholars in the United States in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition.
Patel, Patnaik and Shridharan were selected from a pool of nearly 2,000 students. They will each receive a $2,000 prize. TAMS will also receive $2,000 for each of the students.
Each senior submitted an original research project for the contest:
Patel...
Regents Professor Victor Prybutok was recently awarded the 2018 Decision Sciences Institute’s Lifetime Distinguished Educator Award.
Prybutok, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School, received the award for exceptional contributions to teaching and learning in the disciplines of decision sciences over the course of a career. During his time in higher education, Prybutok has published over 200 journal articles and given more than 300 presentations worldwide.
“Decision sciences has been my focus all these years,” Prybutok says. “But, my biggest sense of...
UNT is collaborating with Inspire Frisco to provide mentoring, education and networking events for entrepreneurs at UNT’s Inspire Park in Frisco. UNT is a founding member of Inspire Frisco, a group of organizations and businesses in the Frisco entrepreneurial ecosystem working to invigorate North Texas entrepreneurs to take initiative, engage and guide the region’s growing startup community.
Since taking ownership of its Inspire Park facility in October, UNT has begun hosting free monthly talks for entrepreneurs across industries, in partnership with Inspire Frisco.
“We are trying to...
UNT brought blockchain to the classroom. Business professionals and College of Business students learned about the financial, technological, legal and governance aspects of blockchain for organizations and how it can be used to improve processes, lower costs, increase security and speed transactions. Blockchain for Business (BCIS 4900 and BCIS 5900) is back by popular demand for the Spring semester. The course is just one way UNT’s Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences is preparing the current and future workforce. On Jan. 24, one of the course’s instructors Cijoy...
Regents Professor Stephen Jackson was recently accepted as a fellow by the American Mathematical Society.
The Fellows of the AMS designation recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics.
Jackson’s decade-plus work with definable set theory is one of the reasons he was honored by the society. In August, he shared his findings on the theory at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“The theory of definable sets is on the very forefront of mathematical logic...
UNT has appointed Hanchen Huang as its new dean of the College of Engineering. Huang’s appointment begins Jan. 1, 2019. In his role at UNT, he will have authority over research, outreach and curriculum.
“I’m excited that Dr. Huang chose to lead UNT’s College of Engineering as it continues to grow its student body and expand its reach as a nationally recognized engineering program,” says UNT Provost Jennifer Cowley. “Dr. Huang brings with him a wealth of research and educational experience in mechanical and nuclear engineering that will help him in guiding and supporting our faculty and...
To develop unparalleled educational opportunities for students in fields related to sport entertainment management, UNT and the Professional Golfers' Association of America signed a memorandum of understanding on education, research and branding initiatives for both entities.
The signing of the memorandum follows the PGA of America's announced intent to relocate its headquarters to Frisco, a hotbed of sport entertainment activity and the location of UNT's Frisco campus, including its sport entertainment management program.
"By partnering with the PGA of America, UNT hopes to develop unique...
Doctoral students studying everything from educational psychology to computer science competed in Toulouse Graduate School’s annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition on Nov. 17. Each contestant fiercely condensed years of research into a concise three-minute presentation to a non-specialist audience of 120 people. The competition challenged students to convey technical details and abstract ideas using only one PowerPoint slide without any additional props or visual aids.
“The goal of the Three Minute Thesis competition is to help students talk about their research using nontechnical...