Kimberly Schneider, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research in UCF鈥檚 College of Undergraduate Studies, will split a $1.8 million National Science Foundation grant with peers at Florida Atlantic 海角直播 and Western Carolina 海角直播 to expand the Learning Environment and Academic Research Network (LEARN) to those institutions.

The program addresses the national challenge of retaining a STEM workforce in the future.聽 The 2012 President鈥檚 Council of Advisors on Science and Technology recommended targeting the first two years of university education as a critical juncture in buttressing the training of new STEM workforce in the U.S.

Studies show that close to one-third of all students entering U.S.colleges leave after one year and go on to have a less than 50 percent shot of graduating within five years.聽 Additionally, minority students have far lower rates of graduating with STEM degrees than white Americans.

The current LEARN program, started in 2011, gives 28 eligible first-year undergraduates 聽the opportunity to live together in a UCF residence hall,聽 work in laboratories with faculty and graduate students, take courses focused on conducting academic research and receive personalized mentoring and guidance counseling. Additionally, the students take part in academic, social and community service activities.

Jadzia Bracamonte, a junior who is pre-med, completed the LEARN program as a freshman.聽 She came to UCF from Tampa and didn鈥檛 know anyone when she arrived.聽 The program gave her the opportunity to connect with students with similar interests and helped clarify for her that she was going to study pre-med.

鈥淚t helped me establish my niche here,鈥� she said. Through the program鈥檚 research apprentice component she worked with Bill Self, a researcher in the College of Medicine and was later introduced to another top medical researcher, Alexander Cole, and was able to spend a summer interning in his laboratory.

The 2011 class of LEARN students returned to their STEM majors in fall 2014 at a 36 percent higher rate than a control group.聽 The LEARN students also showed marked academic improvement with a spring 2012 GPA is 3.28 compared to the control group which was 2.79.

The additional funding for the program will enable it to expand to an additional group of students 鈥� those transferring to UCF from community colleges.

鈥淎 high percentage of underrepresented and underserved minorities in STEM fields begin their higher education careers in community colleges,鈥� Schneider said.聽 鈥淲e believe this model will help those students get the support and skills needed to succeed in science-based careers,鈥� she said.

Donna Chamely-Wiik , director of Florida Atlantic 海角直播鈥檚 Quality Enhancement Plan and Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry is the leader of the project for FAU and Alison Morrison-Shetlar, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and professor of biology聽 is the lead for WCU.

The 海角直播 has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by UCF Associate Professor Alexander Cole for research that shows promise in reviving a dormant gene found in humans and coaxing it to produce retrocyclin, a protein that resists HIV.

Cole’s project is one of 76 grants announced by the Gates Foundation in the third funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve health in developing countries. The grants were provided to scientists in 16 countries on five continents.

To receive funding, Cole showed in a two-page application how his idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. The initiative is highly competitive, receiving almost 3,000 proposals in this round.

Cole used aminoglycosides, drugs commonly used to fight bacterial infections, to trigger the production of the sleeping protein expressed by the retrocyclin gene. The protein resists HIV. Cole said there is a good possibility the aminoglycoside antibiotics will be used in a cream or gel format that could someday be a simple way to prevent the transmission of HIV from men to women.

“The Gates project will explore the first steps in determining if we can produce natural retrocyclin peptides in human cervical and vaginal tissues, and if the peptides can prevent those tissues from becoming infected with sexually transmitted infection-related microbes and viruses,” Cole said. “It could make a huge difference in the fight against HIV.”

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. The disease, most often transmitted sexually, affects 4.3 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. About 14,560 people die annually from HIV-related complications each year in the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The winners of these grants show the bold thinking we need to tackle some of the world’s greatest health challenges,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. “I’m excited about their ideas and look forward to seeing some of these exploratory projects turn into life-saving breakthroughs.”

About Grand Challenges Explorations

Grand Challenges Explorationsis a five-year, $100 million initiative of the Gates Foundation to promote innovation in global health. The program uses an agile, streamlined grant process – applications are limited to two pages, and preliminary data are not required. Proposals are reviewed and selected by a committee of foundation staff and external experts, and grant decisions are made within approximately three months of the close of the funding round.