Graduate Students

Peter Bacopoulos is a Ph.D. student in the Civil Engineering program of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida.  Peter Bacopoulos obtained his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Central Florida in 2003 and his Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Central Florida in 2005.  Peter Bacopoulos has four years of experience as a research assistant in the hp CHAMPS Laboratory (http://www.champs.cecs.ucf.edu/) and six years of experience as a teaching assistant in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida.  His research interests involve coastal hydroscience analysis, modeling, and predictive simulations, with applications aimed at small- and large-scale systems.  His special interests lie in the area of estuarine and coastal modeling, with particular emphasis placed on the analysis, modeling, and simulation of the astronomical tides.

Jonathan Fraine is a Masters degree student in the Department of Mathematics of the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida. Jonathan Fraine attained his Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Central Florida in 2006. And,he worked toward his Bachelor of Science in Pure Mathematics at the University of Central Florida until his inception into Masters program at the same university in 2007. His research interests include computational and theoretical modelling of astrophysical systems. Specifically his research details modelling the exoplanet dust configuration and dynamic, small-scale density of Saturn's rings with emphasis at identifying small scale structure in the rings of dust and molecular ice.

Emily Ross is a PhD degree student in the Department of Mathematics of the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida. Emily attained her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Central Florida in 2009. She has five years of experience tutoring math courses. She has previously done research in the field of fractal geometry. Her current research interests include group theory and other fields of abstract algebra.

Lillie Thomas is a M.S. student in the Environmental Engineering program of the Collge of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from the University of Central Florida in 2008. Lillie Thomas has four years of experience as a research assistant in the Wastewater Treatment Laboratory and the Stormwater Academy in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and two years of experience as a computer lab consultant in the CS&T Computer Labs at the University of Central Florida. She is currently working within the hp CHAMPS Laboratory (http://www.champs.cecs.ucf.edu/) as a research assistant, which specializes in coastal hydroscience analysis, modeling, and predictive simulations aimed at small- and large-scale systems. Her special interests include the area of estuarine and coastal modeling, with a particular emphasis on the analysis, modeling, and simulation of salinity content and sediment transport within estuaries.

Christina Rushman is a first year PhD student in the Mathematics program in the College of Sciences. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Central Florida. Christina has one year of experience as a math tutor at UCF as well as two years of experience as a co-op at Lockheed Martin. Her research interests lie in the area of abstract algebra.

Gregory Territo is a Master’s student in the Department of Biology in the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida. He received a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from UCF in 2008. Gregory has had five years of experience teaching in a zoological setting as well as one year of experience as a teaching assistant in the Molecular Biology and Microbiology Department at UCF. His current research is focused on conservation and evolutionary biology.

Chris Sentelle is a Ph.D. student in the Electrical Engineering program of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. Chris Sentelle obtained his Diploma in EE from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1993, and his Masters in EE from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1995. Chris Sentelle has eight years of experience as an engineer and officer in the US Air Force, and 5 years of experience as a senior software engineer at Harris Corporation. His research interests lie in the areas of machine learning and image processing. His special interest lies in the area of support vector machines (SVMs) and bioinformatics, which is the area of concentration of his Ph.D. dissertation.

Todd Smith is a Ph.D. student in Applied Mathematics at the University of Central Florida. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Applied Discrete Mathematics at Auburn University in 2004. Todd has 9 years of experience programming Perl for CGI and building mySQL databases. He researched the catastrophic interference problem in neural networks at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego. His current research is finding new approximations for the wave structure function of light as it propagates through strong atmospheric turbulence.

Tomasz H. Wlodarczyk is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Central Florida. Tomasz obtained his Masters in Applied Mathematics from the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland in 2002 and the Masters in Mathematical Sciences from University of Central Florida in 2005. He has three years of experience in teaching mathematics and introductory computer science classes. Tomasz also completed the Graduate Teaching Assistant Certificate Program at the University of Central Florida. His research interest lie in the areas of numerical analysis and dynamical systems with the special emphasis on multisymplectic integrators for Hamiltonian partial differential equations (PDEs).

Dan Maronde is a Ph.D. student in the Physics Department of the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida. Dan received his Master of Science in 2006 and his Bachelor of Science in 2004, both in physics from UCF. Before joining the EXCEL program, Dan spent two years as a Graduate Fellow in UCFŐs National Science Foundation-sponsored GK-12 program. His previous teaching experience included a year as a graduate teaching assistant in the UCF Physics DepartmentŐs Scale-Up program and two years as a math and science tutor at Brevard Community College. The subject of DanŐs dissertation research is the expression of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation on the circle, and a generalization of the expression to other compact spaces. Along with mathematical physics, his interests include cosmology and particle physics, planetary science, history, and education.

Marc Elie is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry graduate program at the University of Central Florida. He obtained his Bachelor degrees in Chemistry and Science Education from Florida State University in 2005. Marc Elie has two years of experience as a chemistry tutor at Florida State University as well as one year experience as a teaching assistant in the chemistry department at the University of Central Florida. His research interests lie in the areas of materials work related to detection and environmental remediation of organic pollutants in soil and groundwater , explosives degradation technologies.

Nichole Shorter is a MasterŐs student in the Mathematical Science program of the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida. Nichole obtained her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics Education with University Honors from the University of Central Florida in 2007. She has two years of experience teaching PSAT, SAT, and GRE test preparatory strategies for the Princeton Review. Nichole interned as an Algebra I teacher at Dr. Phillips High School, and as a Pre-Calculus, Advanced Placement Statistics, and Advanced Placement Calculus teacher at Timber Creek High School. Her research interest is improving mathematics pedagogy at the undergraduate level.

Anna Koufakou is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Engineering program of the Schools of Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS) at the University of Central Florida. Anna obtained her Bachelor of Science from Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece, in 1997 and her Master of Science in Computer Engineering from University of Central Florida in 2001. Anna also worked as a full-time Software Engineer at LaserSight Technologies located in Winter Park, FL, from 2001 till 2003. Anna has several years experience as a research assistant in ML2 (Machine Learning Laboratory, website) and as a teaching assistant in SEECS at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests include Data Mining, Outlier Detection, Frequent Itemset Mining, Association Rule Mining, Distributed Mining, Categorical Datasets.

Ajai Cribbs is a first year phD student in the Mathematics department at the University of Central Florida (UCF). She received her Bachelors of Science in Mathematics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) where she was a part of the Alliance of Minority Participates (AMP) Program. She gained experience from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center where she completed an internship for 4 summers working on computer programming with various languages. After completing her BS, she attended University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) where she obtained a Masters of Science in Mathematics. She was a member of the Bridge to the Doctorate Program at UAB. She is currently an EXCEL math tutor in the EXCEL program, and plans on finishing her phD by 2010.

Steve Zimmerman is a PhD student in the Mathematics Program in the College of Sciences. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Central Florida (UCF) in May of 2006. Upon graduation, he began teaching college-prep math classes at Seminole Community College and mentoring students in their Academic Success Center in all math subjects. In the Fall of 2007, he began his graduate program full time and began working for the UCF Math Department as a graduate teaching assistant before joining the EXCEL program in Spring 2008 as a lead mentor.